The concept of using a backup and disaster recovery (BDR) solution to ensure data is always available isn’t new, but market analysts are forecasting a strong CAGR of 36.5 percent through 2025. Grand View Research expects to see the market reach $26.23 billion, driven by businesses relying more on technology and recognizing risks, such as natural disasters and IT system failure. Additionally, the increase in ransomware attacks is also driving companies to strengthen their BDR strategies so it’s easier and faster to recover data without paying ransom, and the shift to remote work also requires businesses to take a new approach to BDR.
Capitalizing on Demand
Although all signs point to an increased demand for BDR solutions, not all managed services providers (MSPs) and value-added resellers (VARs) will be successful selling backup and disaster recovery. If your business is struggling to see growth in this area, you can turn it around by identifying mistakes your sales team is making and changing course.
Start by evaluating your company against these three points:
1. What exactly are you selling?
As with any technology you sell, you aren’t really selling the tech. You’re selling what it does for your client. Instead of attempting to sell a BDR “tool,” make sure you are communicating its value. “MSPs will often talk about having a BDR tool,” says Tim Brown, VP of Security at SolarWinds MSP. “You can have a tool as part of your program, of course, but the tool alone does not make for a successful program.”
Explaining how a comprehensive BDR strategy that includes keeping copies of backups offsite and offline so that data is available even if a business is the victim of ransomware or a natural disaster will resonate.
Also, build your BDR as a Service offering so that you can deliver backup and disaster recovery without requiring a large investment of time and labor from your clients.
When it comes to any BDR offering, however, make sure you establish policies, including data retention, recovery options, service levels and timeframes for particular options. Also, ensure that your clients understand the terms and you formalize the agreement with a written contract.
2. What’s included in your BDR offering?
Some MSPs will pitch BDR for an entire environment. Depending on the size of the business, that can be a lot for an MSP to take on. “For clients, putting all of their eggs in one BDR basket may be too risky,” says Brown. “But if you pitch BDR for, say, the legal team, and propose that you’re going to make sure that all of the information that they have is appropriately stored, managed, and recovered in case of a disaster—that’s a more focused approach that you can address by drilling down to what works best for that type of environment. It creates greater client confidence when the scope is more manageable and realistic. When you focus on what the most important things are and do those things extremely well—and have references—you are well-positioned for success.”
You should also think through the devices and data you’re backing up. You may find that you can develop different solutions for different parts of the IT environment, for example, appliance-based solutions for mission-critical applications and file sync and share to allow users to access data on any device without the need for a virtual private network (VPN).
You may find you stand out from your competition by consulting with your clients and prospects about prioritizing their data and ensuring the most crucial is available immediately and other data can be recovered later. Furthermore, you may be able to offer BDR at a better price since all data isn’t treated as mission-critical.
3. How do your clients know what you say about BDR is true?
If your client hasn’t experienced unrecoverable data directly, they’ve heard horror stories of businesses that have. Research for the Veeam Data Protection Report 2021 found that 23 percent of servers had an unplanned outage from 2020 to 2021, 37 percent of backup jobs fail, and 34 percent of restore jobs fail. That adds up to a 58 percent recovery failure rate.
“It’s vital to position your BDR offering as a tested program that’s backed by people, technology, and process,” says Brown.
Have anecdotes, case studies, references and statistics available that confirm how your BDR offering works. Also, include services that monitor and verify backups to ensure they are successful and periodically test BDR and other elements of your clients’ business continuity solutions to make sure they can keep your clients’ businesses up and running.
Now, Sell BDR
Once you’ve assessed your offerings for their flexibility, how well they protect data in a variety of circumstances, and the services you will provide, communicate those benefits and that value to your clients. Have your team take a consultative approach, find the best solution for your prospect—and increase sales.
Just starting to sell BDR? See our Quick Start Guide to Backup and Disaster Recovery for more information.
